


First light

by cishet



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Childhood, Gen, Sleepovers, i cant even call this f/f theyre too small, theyre so small u guys!! so!! small!!!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 05:21:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8132030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cishet/pseuds/cishet
Summary: As far as Kanan is concerned, there's no bad time to go on an adventure. Dia and Mari would probably tell you otherwise.





	

Despite Uchiura's hot summers, it was still early enough in the day for the air to be fairly cool – a small mercy Mari was eternally thankful for as she huffed and trudged her way up the steep dirt incline. Her eyes were focused down on the earth before her, straining through the darkness to make out the loose rocks on the path before her – she'd come close to stumbling a few times earlier. She could hear Dia trailing just a few steps behind her, in a similar state considering the sound of her breaths. That was some comfort to Mari's pride, at least.

Mari looked up when Dia stepped out in front of her and held her arm out, signalling for her to stop. In the faint first light she could make out Kanan's figure ahead, some ways off, hoisting herself up a particularly steep rocky section by a tree branch.

"Kanan!" Dia called out. "Can't you slow down a little bit?"

"Oops, sorry! I'll wait just here!" Kanan called back, settling herself on a boulder at the top.

"Thank you, Dia," Mari puffed, struggling to catch her breath.

From such a short distance, it wasn't hard to catch Dia’s smile. She reached her hand out to Mari. "Come on, let's go."

  


Honestly, when Kanan had suggested a sleepover for the first weekend of summer vacation, Mari had been ecstatic, and Dia getting rare permission from her parents to join in had made it even better. They could play together all day, then eat dinner together and swap stories and secrets under the cover of night. The three of them had even spent the entire week leading up to it thinking of all the best games to play; they'd gotten scolded more than once for passing notes while planning. It was going to be perfect.

And it had been perfect: Dia's strict parents usually demanded she head home long before dark, but this time they were able to play in the sand and shimmering waves until the sun set over the sea and even after, their feet soaking up the sand’s lingering heat. Kanan’s father prepared sashimi for them from that day's catch, and when night fell they all squeezed into Kanan's bed together, despite the extra futons laid out for them.

After a particularly enlightening round of truth or dare, Mari was truly feeling the tendrils of tiredness begin to take hold. She looked over at the bedside clock: 10:34pm. It was later than she'd ever stayed up before, but she'd wanted to try staying up until midnight for once.

"Hey, guys," said Kanan, nudging Dia, who had started to nod off. "What do you say we go on an adventure tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" said Mari. "But weren't we going to go diving tomorrow? Your dad was going to take us all out, remember?"

"Don’t worry, don't worry! We'll go early and be back in time for diving after, it'll be fine."

"Huh? How early? Aren't we supposed to start at 9?"

"You're sweating the small stuff, Mari. We decided to have as much fun as possible over this weekend, right? This will be fun, so just trust me! Right, Dia?" Kanan jostled Dia, whose head had started drooping again, by the shoulder. " _Right_ , Dia?"

Dia shrugged Kanan off and flopped down on the bed. She began burying herself under the blanket – a difficult feat, considering Kanan and Mari were still sitting on top of it.

"You can do whatever you want so long as you let me sleep right now. It's far past our bedtimes, I hope you both realise. Your mother told us to be in bed by 10, and even that's later than usual," said Dia.

"Well, we technically have been in bed since 10," said Mari. "Not asleep, but we’ve been in bed. Technically."

Kanan clapped softly and said, "See, Dia agrees with me so it's decided, right? We'll go to sleep now so we can make an early start tomorrow." And with that, she threw herself down as well, snuggling under the covers with Dia.

Mari considered protesting, but saw that Dia was already asleep and lightly snoring. She sighed and slid under next to Kanan instead. Once Kanan had set her mind to something, it was almost impossible to persuade her against it. And besides, she was sure it _would_ be fun. After all, when had going along with Kanans spirit ever been anything less?

 

It was something less, Mari supposed, when one of your best friends was shaking both you and your other best friend awake at – Mari peered over at the clock with bleary eyes – 3:45am? No wonder she was exhausted, they'd barely gotten 5 hours of sleep! How was Kanan even awake? From the grumbling Mari could hear coming from Dia's side, she figured Dia was thinking roughly the same thing.

Kanan continued shaking them urgently. "Guys, come on, you have to get dressed or we're going to be _late-_ "

"Late for what?" said Dia, opening one eye to stare at Kanan.

"Late for the-" Kanan stopped herself. "Late for the _adventure_. If we don't leave now we aren't going to make it in time."

"It's still basically night-time!" said Dia. "We shouldn't go out, your parents aren't going to be-"

"My parents aren't going to _know_ so long as we go right now. So come on, get dressed!"

Mari got up and rifled through her bag for the clothes she had packed for the day. "There's no point arguing, Dia, Kanan's made up her mind. You know that better than anyone," she said.

Dia finally sat up, still grumbling. "I guess you're right."

 

They put their shoes on and snuck out the door as quietly as they could. Kanan led them around the empty back streets and side roads, streetlights thinning out until only moon lit their way. She stopped at an unmarked trailhead that Mari had never been to before.

"We're going up this way," Kanan said.

The track cut straight through the trees, starting out fairly smooth and even but quickly becoming bumpy and steep. While Kanan powered ahead, familiar with the terrain, Mari and Dia lagged behind.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Mari whispered to Dia.

"I'm as clueless as you are," replied Dia, swatting away a mosquito. "Though I think Kanan might've mentioned this place to me once before? Maybe. It's hard to tell when it's so dark."

   


"That took you two long enough!" said Kanan, grinning as Mari and Dia made their way to the top of the rocks. She stood up and started walking again. "Come on, hurry, we don't have a lot of time."

"Don't have a lot of time for what?" asked Mari, finally. "You haven't told us anything, just saying 'come on, come on'. Where are we going? I'm not even sure where we are right now."

Kanan looked back at Mari. "If I told you exactly what we were doing, that would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it? An adventure is supposed to be full of surprises."

That was just about enough. Mari clenched her fists. "Hey-"

Kanan reached out and grabbed her hand, forcing her way through the balled fist to entwine their fingers. "Don't worry, I promise you'll see soon!" She took hold of Dia's as well and started pulling them forward. "It's really just a tiny bit further!"

 

Kanan wasn't lying, at least. Within five minutes, the trees around them thinned out and opened up to a wide plateau of soft grass. They stood up at the highest point, with the dim light of the town and the wide sea all spread out before them. There were a few sparse clouds visible in the lightening sky. The air was still and the moment seemed almost suspended in time, frozen, disrupted only by the gentle thrum of cicadas.

"Oh, good," Kanan said, pleased. "It looks like we're right on time."

Just as Mari was about to open her mouth in protest (" _Just in time for_ what-"), her eyes caught on a fiery edge coming up over the horizon and her voice stuck in her throat.

She watched in awe as the sun rose slowly, lighting the sky up with a brilliant blaze of orange and red to contrast the deep blue above, throwing a shade of pink onto the smattering of clouds around. Everything seemed touched by that light, glowing and golden – the town and the trees below – and Mari felt it in her soul as well, filling every part inside her, welling up and threatening to spill over. She stood, still, transfixed. Only when the intensity began to dim did she manage to tear her eyes away from that sight to look around. Turning right, she saw Dia sitting on the grass, gaze still fixed on the last fading light. And to her left, Kanan was looking at her, standing with her hands behind her back and a soft smile.

"Beautiful, right?" Kanan said.

Mari felt some words rising in her throat but choked on her tongue, still speechless. Instead, she nodded fiercely and sat down, leaning back against Dia's side. She felt some mysterious energy coursing through her veins and pushing out through her skin, leaving her restless. She traced her fingers along Dia's arm, half expecting the light to come spilling out to paint everything she touched.

Kanan laughed and held out her hands for them to stand up. "Come on, we should head back now, or else my parents really will realise we're missing."

Dia finally snapped out of her reverie in time to retort. "Aren't they used to that from you by now, Kanan?"

The girl in question laughed again and ducked her head, slightly embarrassed. "…Well, maybe."

Dia took hold of Kanan's hand and stood up, not letting go. "And aren't we going to be too tired for diving after this? None of us got much sleep last night," she scolded lightly.

"Well, we'll just have to go back to sleep when we get home!" said Kanan.

"Back to sleep?" said Mari, holding onto Kanan's other hand and standing up as well. "You expect us to be able to go back to sleep after all that?"

"I-it should be fine, right? And besides! It's not like it wasn't worth it! You had fun, right? Right?" Kanan said quickly, face slightly flushed.

Mari and Dia laughed together and stepped forward, leading Kanan by hand back down the mountain. The sun was well and truly up by now, and they had the entire day before them.

**Author's Note:**

> i looked up uchiura sunrise times & in summer its literally 4.30am, wtf kanan why are u like this  
> tho a little earlier wouldve been even better tbh. 0420 blaze it
> 
> anyway these goobers are so tiny & i love them so much


End file.
